


Creature of Darkness

by Cait_Sidhe



Series: The Accidental Vampire [9]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Biting, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Darkness, Established Relationship, Fear, Game: Kingdom Hearts III, Human/Vampire Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Keyblade Wielder Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), M/M, Mild Blood, Monsters, Monstropolis (Kingdom Hearts), Mysterious Tower (Kingdom Hearts), Not Canon Compliant - Kingdom Hearts III, POV Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), POV Riku (Kingdom Hearts), POV Third Person Limited, POV Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Protective Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Rage form, Riku Loves Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Sora Loves Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27205894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy go to a world called Monstropolis. There, they meet a being named Vanitas, who enrages Sora enough that his vampiric rage form appears.
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: The Accidental Vampire [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1777057
Comments: 17
Kudos: 52





	Creature of Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Well, here's the next entry in my vampire Sora series! I know, it's been quite a bit longer between this one and the others compared to previous installments. Now that we're partially back to on-site work, my stories are going to be less frequent.
> 
> This one rotates between Riku's, Kairi's, and Vanitas's POV. Enjoy!

“Riku?” Sora asked sheepishly.

Riku dismissed his keyblade, then wiped some sweat off his brow as he turned to Sora, whom he hadn’t noticed approaching. “What's up?” he asked. Riku had been training in the field behind the Mysterious Tower with Master Aqua, learning some new keyblade techniques.

Speaking of Master Aqua, she strolled over to join the two. “Everyone okay?” she asked. “Sora, shouldn't you be getting ready to leave on a mission now? Did something happen?”

“Nothing happened,” Sora replied.

“Then what’s wrong?” Riku asked, sensing Sora was feeling uneasy.

Sora was quiet for a moment before speaking, looking down and wringing his hands. “I just don’t want to go on the mission,” he admitted quietly. “I want to stay here with you…”

Riku looked at Sora worriedly. “Why?” Sora had been excited about the mission earlier, and there wasn’t any reason to be nervous as everyone going with him knew about the vampirism, meaning he didn’t have to hide it. Plus, he had better control over it now, so he couldn’t be worried about hurting anyone. He also healed faster now, so there was less chance of needing emergency blood (which Kairi, who would be on the mission too, had volunteered to give if needed), and Sora had taken more than plenty from Riku just earlier that morning (thankfully the ambrosia made his blood replenish faster than humans usually did, otherwise Riku would have trouble training today). So overall, Sora should be perfectly fine.

Sora slinked over and grabbed Riku’s arm, practically hanging off of it. He dodged the question by asking, “Can’t you go with me?”

Riku blinked. This wasn’t like Sora at all; well, sometimes it was, but not in front of people other than Riku (then again, Sora did seem unusually comfortable around Aqua for having just met her). “I have to train here with Aqua.” She was a much more experienced Master, so was teaching him some more advanced skills fitting for such a title.

“I know…” Sora said. “Can’t I train with you?”

“You have to go on missions to try to obtain the Power of Waking,” Riku pointed out. “Plus, someone needs to supervise Kairi.”

Sora rolled his eyes. “Kairi can handle herself. Besides, Donald and Goofy are going too. Maybe if I train with you I'll get the power?”

Suddenly, it clicked, and Riku chucked slightly. “Sora, are you jealous?”

Sora blushed and jumped back slightly, waving his hands in a show of denial. “No! Why would I be jealous about you training with Aqua? Riku, that’s silly!”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

Sora sighed and slumped slightly, looking at the ground. “Fine. Maybe I’m a bit jealous.” He looked up at Riku, pouting slightly. “But can you blame me? It’s just so unfair! Why do you get special training while we’re left just angling around?”

Riku creased his brow, trying to figure out what Sora was actually trying to say (it was times like this that the fact Sora never attended much high school as well as slept for an entire year really showed). “You mean, ambling?”

“Yeah, that,” Sora said, sounding annoyed (Riku knew Sora didn’t like being corrected, but he had to learn somehow) as he crossed his arms. 

Aqua put her hand on Sora’s head. “Hey, when you become a Master, you can have special training, too,” she said in a consoling voice.

“Hmph. Like that’ll ever happen,” Sora grumbled, not bothering to dodge away from Aqua and allowing her to ruffle his hair a bit (Riku found that interesting; for some reason, Sora had been treating Aqua as an old friend. Could one of the hearts in him have known her?).

“What? Of course it will,” Aqua said confidently.

“Not with Yen Sid in charge. Pretty sure he hates me.”

Riku sighed. “Sora, Yen Sid doesn’t hate you. He’s strict, sure, but I’m pretty sure he actually really does believe in you.”

Sora scoffed. “Well, he’s got a great way of showing it.”

“Look, why don’t I administer the test?” Aqua suggested. “Riku and Mickey, too. Traditionally, the tests are observed by a panel of Masters, who then discuss among themselves and collectively decide if the testee deserves the title.”

“Really?” Sora asked, eyes practically glowing (or maybe actually glowing? His eyes did that sometimes, some sort of night-vision thing, and it was somewhat cloudy today).

“But not right now,” Aqua said, anticipating the next question. “I’d prefer to wait until the people are out of your heart, so they don’t accidentally influence you during the test.”

Sora’s eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t think about that!” he frowned. “I don’t think they can influence abilities though, just emotions and stuff, like how I thought I already knew some of the Organization people when I first met them—that was Roxas remembering them. But they’ve never helped in battle, as far as I know.”

“Well, that may be true, but it doesn’t hurt to be certain,” Aqua said gently.

Sora bit his lip in thought, then cringed and used a cure spell (he still forgot he had fangs, which Riku actually found somewhat adorable). “I guess that’s true,” the brunette acknowledged.

“Exactly,” Aqua said. “Now, don’t you have a mission to go on?”

Sora shifted nervously, an indicator that something was on his mind.

“You okay?” Riku asked.

Sora sighed, wrapping his arms around Riku’s waist and burying his head in his chest. “I just don’t want to go. I have a bad feeling about it,” he admitted.

“A bad feeling?” Riku asked, frowning. “What about?” It was unusual for Sora to worry about a bad feeling, let alone discuss it (although it was definitely good that he did so! Holding in feelings too much is what led to the ‘rage-form’ state).

“I just feel like something bad will happen. Like, maybe I’ll lose control again. What if I lose control again?”

“Sora, you won’t lose control,” Riku said confidently.

“But what if? I mean, it happened before! Multiple times!”

“But you’ve been practicing,” Riku pointed out.

“Yeah but what if?”

Riku sighed. “Sora, you can’t hide because of what-ifs. It’s a simple mission; go eliminate the darkness Chip and Dale’s new sensors picked up, then return. You’ve done lots of missions like this.”

“I know…”

“SORA!” sounded a loud squawk in the distance.

“Sounds like Donald’s looking for you,” Riku noted. “He probably has the ship ready.”

Sora nodded, which was difficult as he was still latched onto Riku with his head on his chest. “Probably.”

“Then you might want to get going before he decides to knock you out and drag you to the ship,” Riku joked (although, honestly, the duck might try that).

Sora laughed. “Nah, I don’t think he’d go that far.” Sora sighed. “Still, you’re right. I should go.” Sora made no effort to move.

Riku sighed and let Sora stay there for a minute longer before gently prying him away as he noticed the duck heading their way.

“Sora! Stop dilly-dallying and let’s go!” Donald squawked as he stomped over, bonking Sora on the head with his staff as he reached them, to Riku’s total shock. Sora had mentioned before that Donald sometimes did that, but Riku had never witnessed it himself, nor expected it to be on the head!

“Ow! What was that for?” Sora complained, holding his head. “I didn’t even do anything this time! I was just saying goodbye to them before leaving!”

“You’re still late,” said the duck, putting his hands on his hips.

“That’s still not a reason to hit me,” Sora mumbled, nearly inaudible.

Riku bristled, trying to hold back rage. “He’s right; there’s no reason for you to do that,” Riku told Donald.

“Riku, it’s fine, I’m used to it,” Sora said, immediately defending the duck’s abusive actions once again. 

“No, Sora, it’s not okay,” Aqua said firmly. “You should not be used to something like that.” Riku was pleased to see she was against this, too. Sora mentioned that Jiminy actually had tried telling the duck it wasn’t okay before, but clearly that hadn’t been effectual (unsurprising, as no one listened to Jiminy); perhaps with Aqua also against it, the duck would finally stop—she was a Master, after all (technically so was Riku, but Donald didn’t get along with him well at all, so if it was only him saying something he’d most likely be ignored).

“It’s not a big deal,” Sora continued to argue.

Aqua turned to Donald. “If you do that again, I will not hesitate to report you to Mickey. I am positive he would not condone such violence against a comrade.”

Donald looked completely flabbergasted as he processed that. Riku had been wondering if Mickey knew or not—he’d been friends with the duck for decades, after all—but if Donald was worried about him finding out, clearly that hadn’t been the case. Yet allegedly Donald hit Goofy, too. Had it just been a coincidence that the mouse had never seen the duck hit someone, or had Donald knowingly not done it in front of Mickey? Did that mean the duck knew it was wrong, yet simply didn’t care? Maybe Riku should mention it to Mickey… well, he’d see if Aqua saying something worked first. Riku would talk to Sora about it later to request he tell Riku if it happened again (Riku had a feeling if he said something now, the duck might try to convince Sora to hide it or something next time… because Riku was fairly certain it would happen again, if it was so frequent. Maybe Riku should report it sooner than later, then).

“Hey! Sora, Donald, ready to go?” came a yell from a few dozen yards away; it appeared Kairi had gotten impatient so came to find them.

“Be right there!” Sora called back, then turned to Riku, pressing onto his toes to give him a quick kiss.

“Sora!” Donald said impatiently.

“Yeah, I know, I’m going,” Sora said before running off towards Kairi, duck in tow.

***

Kairi felt an odd tingle across her skin as she stepped off the GummiShip onto the new world they were visiting, evidence that the world-order magic Kairi cast had taken effect. She looked down at herself to discover what fun outfit she’d have this time… only to get a huge shock at what she saw.

“Did I do the magic wrong…?” Kairi wondered. She was covered in what appeared to be lavender fur with large hot-pink spots. That wasn’t what was strange, though; plenty of worlds gave them fur. What was strange was that circling her wrists and ankles and lining her shoulders were strange little mauve-colored moving appendages, some sort of thin feelers or thick whiskers or something. Her nails curved into blue talon-like claws; she reached up to feel her hair, pulling some into her face to see it; it was actually rows of the strange feelers, and tickled when she touched it. As to what she was wearing… well, it was basically nothing. She had some golden metallic accessories (or, were they a part of her?) in the form of thick bands wrapped around her biceps, calves, waist, and neck. That was it. But there wasn’t a need for any coverings, she realized; where there should have been a hole there was simply nothing, and it appeared she had no nipples either, unless the fur hid those things.

“No, I think that’s just how we look here,” Sora mused. Kairi turned to Sora, who was examining himself, seeing he appeared to be in the same boat as her (which Kairi was relieved at; it seemed she hadn’t miscast the spell after all; if she ended up stuck looking like this permanently just like Sora ended up permanently a vampire… well, Kairi didn’t want to even think about that possibility). Sora was covered in silver fur with grey stripes circling his arms and legs. He too was pants-less with nothing down there (Kairi felt embarrassed for checking; but did it count as looking if there was nothing there?), and his hair looked to be some sort of bright-red squishy material. His ears were long and pointed, and he had no nose (Kairi felt her ears and nose, happy to find they seemed normal except for the fur covering them. Well, mostly: her ears seemed a little pointier than usual, but their size was normal). As he turned to look at his butt Kairi saw he had a little tail (Did Kairi have a tail too? She put her hand behind her to check… yup, tail. Wait. No, three of them? Ticklish, too, like… Seriously? She pulled them around to look. Three long extra-thick feelers. Kinda gross). 

“Hey, why do you get clothes?” Kairi asked Sora, seeing he wore his usual bracers and short-sleeve jacket (along with, of course, the crown necklace he always wore, which lingered during all his transformations, including when he’d been a lion). Donald and Goofy also wore jackets and hats, the former having turned into a blue one-eyed thing that was still fairly duck-like otherwise, minus feathers, and the latter being mostly green and fur-less with mismatched eyes and a few feelers on the back of his head. Both were clawed, of course, just like Kairi and Sora.

Sora shrugged. “I dunno; you cast the spell on yourself, right?” Then, his eyes lit up, and he donned a mischievous grin. “Never knew you were such an exhibitionist, Kairi,” Sora joked.

“What!” Kairi squeaked. She knew it was a joke, but her face still flushed in embarrassment. “That’s not—you know I’m not—Sora!—This is—!”

Sora laughed. “Relax, Kairi, I’m just teasing!”

“I know,” Kairi said, trying to get herself under control. She looked down at her hands. Her gloves should have been left on, at least, to protect them from getting too many callouses… but maybe that wouldn’t be an issue, as it appeared her palms and inner fingers were actually made of some sort of purple leather. Weird.

“Gawrsh, we’re all so scary,” Goofy commented, looking a little worried. “I wonder if they’re friendly around here, or if we should be careful?”

Sora put his hands behind his head and grinned, showing off his fangs (Kairi was happy to see that smile; for a while Sora hadn’t been smiling so brightly, since he had been trying to hide the fangs for so long. Kairi had been getting worried he wasn’t as happy as he used to be, so seeing that smile again brought great relief). He turned to the dog and said, “Relax! We’re scary in Halloween Town, too, but they’re all really nice! Well, mostly.”

Kairi bit back laughter at that; leave it to Sora to assume that in a world full of monsters they’d be friendly rather than scary. She bit down on her lip… “Ow!” Kairi proclaimed as the mirth was replaced by a sharp pain.

“What’s wrong?” Sora asked worriedly, turning to Kairi.

“I bit my lip!” Kairi mumbled through her hands, which were covering her mouth. She used a quick “cure” spell.

Sora blinked, then started laughing. “Oh my gods. See? I told you! Everyone keeps saying they’re cool, but fangs are definitely an inconvenience!”

“Yeah, how do you and Riku manage to kiss with them?” Kairi wondered aloud before she could stop herself.

Sora blushed (well, not visibly due to the fur, but his face scrunched a little in the way it usually did when he blushed). “Um… that’s…”

“This isn’t the time to talk about that!” Donald chided. “Come on, let’s go inside.” The duck turned and began walking towards a large concrete building. An office? Or, factory? Maybe a cross between the two? Well, they’d find out soon, Kairi supposed.

“‘We scare because we care’,” Sora mused, reciting the large words above the door. The word ‘scare’ had scaffolding in front of it.

“Maybe they aren’t friendly after all,” Kairi said worriedly.

“Well, we won’t know unless we go in,” Sora said cheerfully, and hurried to catch up to Donald.

They opened the door and entered a large circular room with a reception desk in the center. It was dark, as the lights were off.

“Hello?” Sora called aloud. “Anyone here?”

“Maybe we came after-hours,” Goofy said.

A high child-like squeal sounded, and a little girl came running into the room, followed by a large blue-furred, tailed, and horned bear-like monster and another smaller monster around Donald’s size that consisted of a smooth sphere-like green body, spindly legs and arms, tiny horns, and a massive eye that took up the entire top portion of his front with a wide toothy mouth below it. Were they chasing her? No, she didn’t seem scared… 

The two monsters froze upon seeing the group, and the girl, laughing, grabbed Kairi’s leg as she hid behind her. It must be a game of tag, Kairi realized; she’d babysat a lot of kids.

“This isn’t what it looks like!” the round one claimed. 

“Yeah, she, er, escaped out a door,” the blue one said. “We were just putting her back; this is definitely not a play date, and definitely does not happen regularly!”

The round one then looked confused as he saw the girl holding Kairi. “Wait. You guys aren’t scared of kids?”

“Why would we be scared of kids?” Kairi wondered.

“Because almost everyone is,” the round one claimed.

“Well, we’re from pretty far away,” Sora explained (Kairi was proud of him; Sora often forgot about keeping world order, and thus would sometimes blurt out revealing things, especially when just entering new worlds).

“Huh. Well, I’m Mike Wazowski, and this is Sulley,” the round one introduced. “Now, what brings you to Monsters Inc.?”

“Um…” Kairi wasn’t sure what to say.

“We heard you’re having some problems,” Sora said, clearly fishing.

Somehow, it worked. “Well, you’d be right about that!” Sulley said. “You see, there have been strange creatures appearing lately…”

***

Vanitas, hiding behind one of the magical doors in the massive room filled with such, cringed slightly as he watched the keyblade-wielders and their companions take out some more unversed, causing him slight pain. Vanitas summoned some more. He didn’t want to kill them, but wearing them out would definitely be desirable; he didn't want to fight six full-strength people at once! Or, monsters, or whatever they were. What he wanted was Sora. Vanitas hadn’t expected to find the kid here—all he’d really wanted was to have some fun eating all the delightful scream energy left around and cause chaos—but while he was, might as well capture him. He had Ventus’s heart hiding within him, after all (within a lot more darkness than Vanitas ever expected the kid to have, but that was irrelevant). Vanitas wanted nothing more than to take Ventus back. Xehanort had forbidden him from doing so (something about needing him to be some sort of guardian; Vanitas hadn’t been paying much attention), but Xehanort wasn’t here.

The group beat the remaining unversed, then opened a door and said goodbye to the girl they’d been dragging around. As they closed the door, Vanitas decided to make his appearance—the question was, how? A witty remark? Call Ventus’s name? Actually, he was pretty curious about that darkness… Should Vanitas start with that? He wanted to know if the so-called ‘Hero of Light’ was aware of having such. But he needed a good way to ask it, a witty remark, something to catch their attention and show he was confident and in charge (which he definitely did not get nervous about, thank-you-very-much! Vanitas was pure darkness. He exuded confidence. Cockiness. Embraced being egotistical. He was Definitely. Not. Nervous). Oh! He had an idea of what to say, something that surely would get on the kid’s nerves.

Vanitas stepped out into the open. “Well well well. If it isn’t the Hero of Light… or should I say, Darkness? They do say the brightest lights cast the darkest shadows. I can see why Xehanort wanted you as a vessel.”

Sora swerved around. “Vanitas!” he bristled, then looked surprised and put a hand over his mouth. Ah, so that hadn’t been Sora who had spoken…

“Ventus,” Vanitas acknowledged. “So, this vessel truly has been where you’ve been hiding. What a strange place to slither off too… You claimed that you’d never embrace darkness, yet here you are in a being that’s full of it. Very interesting indeed.”

Sora blinked, then a look of dawning realization came over him. “Ventus is one of the people in my heart,” he said. It wasn’t a question. “And… wait.” Sora narrowed his eyes at Vanitas. “Aqua told me about you! Didn’t Ventus defeat you?!”

Vanitas scoffed. “Pu-lease. He’s too weak. He only… incapacitated me temporarily. But with all this excess scream energy around here… well, now I’m back to full strength!” To demonstrate, as well as for some fun dramatics, Vanitas picked up a canister of scream energy and popped it open, drinking in the euphoria of screams and fear. “And now, I will take Ventus back. He belongs to me, not you!” Vanitas held out his hand and began to draw Ventus’s heart towards himself, like a magnet (thankfully it seemed to be working; Vanitas hadn't been sure it would). They were connected, after all.

“Ngh…” Sora cringed, clutching his heart. “No… I won’t let you take him…” he grunted out. Vanitas frowned, doubling his efforts. This kid was stubborn! Much stronger than Vanitas thought, too.

“I won’t let you either!” The Princess of Light declared, leaping in front of them and using some sort of light barrier.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. Did she really think that could stop him? He was super-powered on all the excess energy! Princess or not, she was nothing compared to him. Vanitas flung his hand in front of him in a half-circle; a wave of darkness flew at the girl, as well as the duck and dog who had joined her, and flung them across the room. Vanitas held his hand out towards Sora again, attempting to draw Ventus out.

Sora’s eyes glowed gold, to Vanitas’s shock. The look of pure rage and hatred on the boy’s face was unexpected, to say the least. There was something feral about him, like he was a predator—and Vanitas was the prey. He shook the thought away. That was ridiculous… Or maybe it wasn’t. Darkness crept across the kid’s skin, and Vanitas faltered. Was he… was he actually feeling fear? Whatever was in front of him was definitely not human (well, not something with a human heart, that was; the world-order monster visage was irrelevant to that), Vanitas was sure of it. Whatever the kid was, it was dangerous. And the darkness in him! It was a different flavor of darkness than Vanitas had ever seen before. Uncontrolled. Wild. Vanitas thought his emotions created as much darkness as was possible, but here was Sora, creating an overwhelming amount… no. The emotional kind was the same as Vanitas's. It was just combined with this new form, which was what was making it so powerful. This was a Guardian of Light? No, impossible. Xehanort had been dead wrong about that. 

“Vanitas,” Sora growled, bearing fangs… in such an instinctual, practiced manner that indicated he was used to doing such even when not in world-order monster form. So he wasn’t human, then, as Vanitas expected. A dark creature? But, how could the Organization not know that? Perhaps it was a recent development… so what, then? Something humans could be changed into?

Vanitas somehow managed to get a hold on himself, and glared at Sora in return. “I don’t know what you are, but that’s irrelevant. I WILL take Ventus back,” he asserted, raising his hand again.

Sora didn’t give Vanitas another chance to try. He erupted with darkness, and was on top of Vanitas before he could even process it. Vanitas’s eyes widened in fear as the boy bit into his neck… a vampire. The kid was a fucking vampire… but wait, Vanitas had no blood, so it’d be fi—well, shit. The kid was sucking his darkness out. Absorbing it. Vanitas struggled as hard as he could, kicking and screaming. This could not be happening!

Vanitas felt himself weaken, on the verge of passing out… his limbs fell to the floor, too weak to struggle… he heard shouting…

Suddenly, Sora was pulled off Vanitas, growling and thrashing as his companions tried to control him. Vanitas, using all his strength, shakily pushed onto his knees, forming a portal on the ground in front of him and allowing himself to fall through as his consciousness faded.

***

Kairi wrapped her arms around Sora from behind, struggling to hold him still with Donald and Goofy’s help. His claws dug into her arms, trying to pry her away as he growled, but Kairi clenched her teeth and held on anyway. They couldn’t let Sora loose; if they did, who knows where he would go! They had to hold him until the darkness faded… but there was so much of it! How long would it last? He had absorbed an awful lot of darkness from that creature. Vanitas. A being constructed entirely of darkness, according to Aqua. Exactly how much had Sora absorbed? Vanitas had been pretty weak when he escaped… 

Sora twisted and turned; he was so strong! Kairi wasn’t sure how much longer they could do this… Donald had already tried a sleep spell, to no avail. The cloak seemed to block such.

“Ow!” Goofy exclaimed, pulling his arm away in reaction to Sora biting him. Well, attempting to; Sora was still latched on. When he finally managed to pull away, the skin tore, leaving a big wound. Donald, shocked, loosened his grip, and Sora twisted away, knocking Kairi to the ground.

Donald quickly healed the bite mark, or tried to. It didn’t fully heal even after a few spells, so he pulled a bandage out of his magical pocket and quickly wrapped it around Goofy’s arm before turning to Kairi, attending to the puncture wounds on her arms, though they didn’t fully heal either (thankfully they did heal enough for there to be no blood, other than the bit now matted into her fur).

Kairi turned to look at Sora, who was on the other side of the room, staring at them while growling in a very unsettling manner. Humans couldn’t make sounds like that, nor could their world-order monster forms (not that they were maintaining world order very well at the moment; the monsters they met here were hiding behind some doors).

“Should we try approaching him?” Kairi whispered to Donald and Goofy.

“Do we have any other choice?” Donald replied, sounding nervous.

“He won’t actually attack us,” Goofy pointed out. “He only hurt us before because we were grabbing him so tightly.”

“I dunno about that,” Kairi said warily, eyeing Sora. “I don’t think he’s in control of himself at all.”

“Nonsense,” Donald warbled. “He’s never attacked us while in this form before.”

“But you have to admit, it is rather different than usual,” Goofy pointed out. “Didn’t Riku tell us about this? The vampirism increases the effect.”

“But that doesn’t mean he’ll—WAK!” Donald leapt out of the way as Sora dashed at him, fangs bared and claws of darkness flaring out. Sora continued in a straight line, barrelling into the wall, but it seemed to have little effect; he scrambled up and faced the group again. “I stand corrected,” Donald said weakly, looking rather shell-shocked.

“Gawrsh, Donald, I think we’ll need to fight him,” Goofy said, holding out his shield and standing slightly in front of Donald and Kairi.

“Wait. Didn’t Riku say he got him out of it before?” Kairi recalled. “I can’t remember how though…”

“Then go call Riku!” Donald ordered. “We’ll keep him distracted!”

Sora hissed, then barrelled towards them again, slamming right into Goofy’s shield; it looked like it took quite the effort for Goofy to push the ball of darkness away.

Donald held up his staff and used a fire spell, but it bounced off Sora. He yelled at Kairi, “Go!”

Kairi shook herself, snapping out of her slight shock at seeing Sora attacking them. “Right,” she said, turning and rushing down the nearest corridor; Sora moved to attack her but Donald and Goofy intercepted.

Kairi raced down the hall and turned a corner, panting. She was usually more in shape than this, but they’d already been fighting those unversed things for hours! Once she caught her breath, Kairi pulled out her GummiPhone and quickly opened Riku’s contact info, pressing the green call button once she did so.

“Pick up, pick up, pick up…” Kairi muttered as it rang and rang. It went to voicemail; Kairi hung up and tried calling again.

Riku wiped sweat off his brow as he answered, appearing slightly out of breath. He seemed to be outdoors. “Hey,” he greeted. “I was in the middle of training…” he then looked slightly confused, probably at her visage. “Are you some sort—what’s wrong? Did something happen?” Riku’s tone changed to worried in an instant, probably reacting to the fact that Kairi couldn’t help but let some tears fall. “Where’s Sora? Is he okay?!”

Kairi shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s in that vampire rage-form thing, and we can’t get him out of it. He absorbed tons of darkness from that pure-dark guy—Vanitas—that Aqua told us about, who is apparently alive. Donald and Goofy are currently fighting him.”

“Wait, fighting Vanitas or fighting Sora?”

“Sora,” Kairi clarified. “Vanitas escaped out of a portal. Sora then tried to attack us; Donald and Goofy are trying to subdue him by force. I was wondering if you knew of a better way to get him out of it? You did before, right?”

Riku took a moment to answer. “I did, but it was already after we were done fighting heartless and he didn’t try attacking me,” Riku admitted. “I approached cautiously, and he was wary, but once he calmed enough to realize it was me the darkness dissipated. Reminded me a bit of a feral cat, actually,” Riku said with a small chuckle. If Kairi weren’t so high-strung at the moment she’d probably raise an eyebrow at that. Riku continued, “But if he’s attacking you, I doubt that’ll work; he hadn’t yet decided to attack me or not when I approached.”

“Then what should we do?” Kairi asked quietly. “If you were here, maybe you could do that again, but you’re not…”

Riku was quiet for a moment, frowning in contemplation. “Actually… maybe I can be…” he mused.

“What do you mean?” Kairi asked.

“Give me a moment,” Riku told Kairi, hanging up.

Kairi stared down at the blank phone screen. What was Riku talking about? He had no way to get here so quickly. Not without being able to… 

After a few minutes of contemplating, Kairi looked up and gave a start; a dark portal had appeared in front of her. She immediately readied her keyblade; had Vanitas returned? Did he have backup?

“Whoa, hey, it’s just me!” Riku exclaimed, holding out his hands as he emerged from the portal.

“Riku?!” Kairi gasped. “I thought you couldn’t make portals anymore!” she accused.

Riku blushed and put his hand behind his head, rubbing his hair in a very Sora-esque gesture. “Heh. Yeah, I wasn’t sure I could do it either… I’ve been trying to, lately, ever since we got stuck in the Realm of Darkness, so we don’t end up needing rescuing again—you know Sora will be asking to make them again. This was the first time I succeeded though.”

Kairi nodded. That made sense. But something didn’t… “How’d you know we were specifically here?”

Riku blushed deeper. “I took a page from Sora’s book and followed my heart,” he said sheepishly. “Instead of thinking of a place, I thought about you; it was Aqua’s idea.”

“That’s really useful,” Kairi acknowledged.

“I think it’ll only work for people I’m close to though,” Riku further explained. 

Kairi nodded. “Makes sense. But don’t do it too often!” she reminded him. “No getting consumed by darkness because you want a quick transportation method! Also, next time, use a cloak,” Kairi chided. It wasn’t a huge deal, as it was a quick trip—Kairi herself had been through them without protection—but still.

Riku rolled his eyes with a fond smile. “Yes, mom,” he joked. Then, he frowned, getting back to business. “Anyway. Where’s Sora?”

A loud explosion rumbled from fairly nearby, and a small cloud of darkness wafted down the hallway.

“That way,” Kairi pointed wryly.

***

Riku followed Kairi down the hall, eventually emerging into a large room, possibly some sort of warehouse. Broken doors were strewn all over the place. Streaks and small pools of stray darkness were crawling along the floor, walls, and even ceiling, all of which were also covered in gigantic claw marks and dents. Had Sora done all this?

“Donald! Goofy!” Kairi shouted, rushing to the two, who were collapsed in the center of the room, Donald on top of Goofy.

Riku joined Kairi in rolling them both onto their backs, finding that the two actually were semi-awake.

“Did you see where Sora went?” Riku asked the two, and Donald weakly raised a wing to point down a hallway. “Okay. Kairi, you stay here and help them, I’ll go find Sora,” he told her.

Kairi nodded. “Got it. Good luck.”

Riku raced in the direction Donald pointed, down a hallway full of offices. Where was Sora? Hopefully somewhere still in the building, which appeared to be a cross between offices and a factory… wait, Riku was forgetting the link! Duh. He focused on it… Sora was nearby. Very nearby. Riku turned a corner and then slowed his pace as he approached an open door with tendrils of darkness undulating out of it.

“Sora?” Riku asked quietly, stopping as he reached the room.

Sora’s answer came in the form of a low growl. 

Riku froze, then took a deep breath before slowly inching into the room. It was dark, and not just due to the ribbons of dark energy Sora was producing that snaked around the room; Riku briefly contemplated turning the lights on, then thought better of it. He didn’t want to spook Sora by doing anything too sudden. Riku looked around, noting that he was in what appeared to be a cross between a meeting room and office: a fancy desk sat stoutly on one end, one of the kind with a carved wooden front, facing towards the door, but there was also a small metal meeting table surrounded by chairs and a rolling chalk-board near it. Riku noticed that the rolling leather chair behind the desk had been pushed aside, and the tendrils of darkness originated from something under the desk. Well, he’d found Sora.

Riku slowly made his way around the desk and crouched down, finding Sora huddled underneath as expected. It was difficult to tell what Sora was thinking when in this form, as his face was covered in darkness except for two glowing yellow eyes, which were not detailed enough to read. Still, Riku looked into them, and got the sense that Sora was wary of Riku but wouldn’t attack unprovoked (maybe he’d attacked Kairi when they tried restraining him, thinking they meant him harm? Riku would have to ask the redhead about the specifics of what occurred).

“Hey there, Sora,” Riku said gently, slowly holding out a hand. Sora narrowed his eyes. “It’s okay, Sora, you can trust me,” Riku told Sora as he tried to send feelings of comfort through their link. 

Sora shifted slightly, uncurling so he could sniff Riku’s hand (he really was fairly cat-like when he was like this; Riku couldn’t help but think it was rather adorable despite the general horror aesthetic). He let out a small churring sound, as though questioning something.

“That’s right; you remember me, don’t you?” Riku prodded. “I’m Riku.”

“Rrrrrrr…” Sora began, sounding like he was trying to say Riku’s name, although it turned into a soft growl instead.

“That’s right. Riku,” Riku said patiently.

Sora leaned forwards a little to butt Riku’s hand with his head. Riku cautiously wove his fingers into Sora’s hair (well, web-like appendage), scratching slightly.

Sora murmured happily, curling into Riku more. Riku carefully sat down cross-legged (crouching for so long was brutal!), and Sora scooted forwards to sprawl out across his lap, stretching out on his stomach and seeming pleased. Riku ran his other hand down Sora’s back, and Sora arched into it (again, just like a cat… were all feral dark forms like this, or was it unique to Sora? Or, maybe it was because this monster form was cat-like? Riku should do some research on that). The darkness flowing off Sora felt strange, like silky, velvety water. It pulled away slightly with Riku’s hand, then melted off and back onto Sora. There was fur underneath it, which Riku could feel too; he was unsure whether that was soft and silky itself, or if it was only the darkness causing the sensation.

Riku pondered what to do as he pet Sora. The brunette was certainly happy; that had seemed like the key to changing him back in the past, so why wasn’t it now? Had he absorbed too much darkness? 

“Sora,” Riku whispered, seeing if he’d get any reaction.

“Mmmhmm?” Sora said, sounding a little more cognizant than before, indicating that he had heard and at least semi-understood Riku.

“Do you know who I am?”

“My R’ku,” Sora slurred quietly, and Riku blushed slightly at how cute that was, Sora calling him ‘his’ like that.

“Do you know where you are?” Riku tried, trying to gauge just how aware Sora was, even though he still had darkness wrapped around him. It’d be great if he could see Sora’s eyes, but they were closed.

Sora wiggled around so he was on his back instead of answering. When Riku hesitated for a moment, Sora grabbed his hand and placed it on his stomach. Okay, so Sora did want to be pet there. Was Sora trying to be intimate? Riku felt his face heat up as he complied with Sora’s demand (he had to resist an urge to feel lower than Sora’s stomach, his curiosity wondering if there was truly nothing there or if there was a secret to it; now was definitely not the time for that at all! Maybe they could come back here sometime and experiment). It wasn’t unusual for them to be in this position, but never had it been so public. Not that this was, but it was an open office that anyone could easily walk into. Plus, Sora was in this darkness form, and had just attacked his comrades; it was hardly the time for cuddling. But what else could Riku do? He would like to hope that Sora wouldn’t attack him, but Sora had already attacked Kairi; if Riku refused to pet Sora, would Sora retaliate? Riku brushed his hand across Sora's chest, feeling a nipple hidden under the fur. Sora made a pleased murmuring sound. 

“Sora, how aware are you right now?” Riku asked tepidly. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I ‘nderst’nd,” Sora mumbled.

Riku paused, resting his hand on Sora’s stomach. He narrowed his eyes. Had Sora returned to himself, despite the darkness still surrounding him? Was Sora trying to stall, trying to delay the aftermath of what just happened? Did Sora even know what just happened?

“Riku, pet me,” Sora quietly complained.

Riku rubbed Sora’s stomach slightly as he said, “Sora, if you’re aware of things, we have to address what just happened,” he pointed out.

Sora scrunched his brow slightly and opened his eyes; the darkness had at least moved away from his face, although it still lightly flowed off him, like he’d removed a helmet from a suit of darkness. Sora’s eyes were a vivid gold, with which he looked towards Riku’s face. “What do you mean?” Sora asked, clearly confused.

“You don’t remember?” Riku asked.

Sora shook his head. “No… last I remember is some guy with some sort of dark armor appearing.” The darkness was gradually flowing off the rest of him now, albeit slowly.

Riku nodded. Right, so that must have been shortly before Sora’s rage-form took over. Riku hoped telling Sora about it wouldn’t set him off again, but he had to know what had happened.

***

Kairi watched as Donald and Goofy (their injuries hadn’t actually been that bad overall, nothing a few cures and potions couldn’t mostly fix) talked with Mike and Sulley, trying to explain what had happened and profusely apologizing about all the damage and the scare. The monsters were strangely complacent with that, assuring the group that they had a really good insurance policy because things like this happened all the time (well, obviously not exactly like this, but things that caused equal amounts of destruction). Kairi fully expected them all to be kicked out and told never to return, but instead the two monsters were just waving the whole incident off; they said that all the help removing the unversed and keeping Boo safe more than made up for it.

“Kairi! Donald! Goofy!” came a shout, and Sora came rushing around a corridor, appearing perfectly fine. 

Riku quickly followed after, and Kairi did a double-take. He must have used the world-order spell after finding Sora, since he too was now covered in fur, pure white in color. Like Sora, there was nothing between his legs (Kairi mentally berated herself for looking there first), and he wore only his jacket. His hair was similar to Kairi’s, silver tendrils swirling around almost like snakes, and his ears were large and pointy like Sora’s. Four black horns formed a crown along his forehead, and his knees and elbows had similar boney black spikes protruding out too. His long furry tail ended in a cluster of four of those same spikes. And of course, as with everyone in their group, Riku had fangs and dangerous-looking claws.

Kairi gave a start as Sora suddenly sped forwards at a barely-discernible speed, stopping right in front of her. She blinked, processing that. Right, vampire speed; he seemed to be using that more and more. Maybe it hadn’t actually been intermittent like they’d thought, rather it took some time to adjust to using, and he could practice to learn to control it fully, like the darkness; Kairi would mention that possibility to Sora later... Also, Sora’s eyes were a deep ochre color… should she mention that now?

Or, Donald could. “Wak! Your eyes are golden!” he declared.

Sora looked down sheepishly as he spoke. “Yeah, they’ll probably be like that for a bit; Riku says I apparently absorbed a lot of darkness from that guy, more than the amount from Aqua—that caused them to be gold for days, remember? Anyway, I guess you three would know more about what happened with Vanitas… I’m really sorry I attacked you.”

Kairi smiled gently and shook her head. “It’s okay,” she said (even though she’d probably be having nightmares about it). “You weren’t yourself.”

Sora sighed. “I thought I had control over the darkness, though; I guess I was just fooling myself.”

Kairi frowned. “Wait, are you saying you went into that form intentionally!?”

Sora looked up at Kairi, wide-eyed, and waved his hands in front of him. “No no no! I would never! I tried to keep it in!”

“Then it wasn’t your fault,” Kairi said simply.

“Yeah. You couldn’t help it,” Goofy pitched in. 

Sora’s gaze fell to Goofy’s bandaged arm, and he gasped. “Did I do that?” he asked quietly, gesturing to it. “And…” he looked around at all the destruction. “Did I do all of this, too?”

“Water under the bridge,” Mike said, waving an arm. “Like I said to them, this place gets destroyed all the time, the insurance company’s used to it. We’ll get some people in tomorrow, and it’ll be good as new by the next day!”

Sulley put his hand on Sora’s shoulder. “Hey, we’re monsters,” he pointed out. “We all know what it’s like to have our instincts take over.”

“Really?” Sora asked, sounding skeptical.

“Yup!” Mike said. “Why, you should have seen Sulley at University, when he—”

“Mike,” Sulley interrupted with a slight warning growl.

“Well, let’s just say it was a mess and leave it at that,” Mike finished quickly.

“Besides, if it weren’t for you, that guy and his creatures wouldn’t have left!” Sulley continued as though the brief interaction with Mike hadn’t existed.

“I guess that’s true,” Sora acquiesced. “Still, I’m really sorry about all this.”

Kairi then noticed Riku hovering slightly outside the group, and realized he’d never been introduced. “Riku,” she called, and he looked towards her. “This is Mike,” she gestured to the round one, “And Sulley,” she gestured to the blue bear. Then she turned to them. “Mike, Sulley, this is Riku, the one I was telling you about.”

“Ah, yeah, the one that can soothe Sora,” Mike acknowledged. “Sure was lucky you were nearby a kid’s door.”

Riku glanced at Kairi in slight confusion, and she mouthed ‘I’ll tell you later’. That had been how they had explained Riku’s quick appearance—it sure was lucky this place had magical doors, otherwise it’d be tricky to come up with a believable explanation!

“Yeah, pretty lucky,” Riku replied. Kairi pondered that. It really was lucky—Riku hadn’t been able to summon a dark portal for a while, yet he managed to in this case. Kairi wondered if it was because Sora was in danger that Riku had been able to, similar to how parents allegedly could lift cars if their kids were in trouble. Riku sure was devoted to Sora… Kairi vaguely wondered if either boy would be able to pull off a miracle like that if she were the one in trouble.

“We probably should go now,” Donald pointed out. 

Thus, the group said their goodbyes to Mike and Sulley and headed out to the GummiShip.

***

Vanitas opened his eyes to find he was lying on his side on his pedestal in the Keyblade Graveyard. He blinked a few times, trying to figure out why, then the prior events came flashing back to him. He struggled to get up; realizing standing wasn’t the best idea in his state, he opted to sit cross-legged. Xigbar, Xemnas, Ansem, and the original Xehanort were there too.

“Well well well, finally awake, huh?” Xigbar mocked. “You know, you interrupted our meeting. Rude.”

Vanitas scoffed, but it turned into a cough as his head spun. “Fuck,” he said, putting a hand on his head.

“Got your ass handed to you, huh?” Xigbar laughed. “Serves you right for running away.”

Vanitas glared at him. “No one told me the brat could suck darkness right out of people! I’m operating on like ten percent here, if even.”

Xehanort responded to that, eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, ‘suck darkness’ from people?”

“You heard me.” Vanitas gestured to his neck, which he could feel hadn’t healed yet. Usually his darkness automatically healed wounds for him. “Kid bit into me and literally drank it. ”

“That is impossible. They more likely discovered some kind of new light spell that neutralizes darkness,” Ansem suggested.

Vanitas looked at them in disbelief. “Seriously? I think I’d know if it were a light spell! Besides, would a light spell involve biting someone? No, this was some sort of funky dark vampire shit straight out of a horror movie.”

“Surely you must be exaggerating,” Xemnas said haughtily.

“Surely I am NOT,” Vanitas simultaneously retorted and mocked the ridiculous manner the man spoke in. Seriously, what was with that?

“Which one are you referring to?” Xehanort asked. “Not one of the guardians. Do they have a new companion?”

“Perhaps Riku finally allowed darkness in again,” Ansem suggested, sounding pleased.

Vanitas laughed. “Nope, wrong! This was the Sora kid!”

“That is impossible,” Xemnas denied. “He is the most light of them all, next to the princess.”

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. “You gotta be joking. If he’s the most light of them all, your plan is going to flop horribly, because he is Dark with a capital D.”

“You know this how?”

Vanitas looked at Xemnas flatly and said, “I’m pure darkness. I can tell how much others have. This has been established multiple times.”

“Well, it seems your senses are incorrect,” Ansem said plainly.

“No, kid has a point,” Xigbar jumped in. “Why do you think we tried to snag him in the dream world? Sora’s got quite a bit of untapped darkness in there.”

“But it had yet to be cultivated,” Xemnas pointed out.

“Well it sure as hell is cultivated now,” Vanitas said. “He became cloaked in it. His eyes were even gold!”

“Ah,” Xigbar said in realization of something. “Yeah, I’ve seen that before, actually. It’s just a small surge, lasts but a minute or so, and then he’ll be right back to his goody-two-shoes light self again.”

“Yeah that is not what happened,” Vanitas continued to protest. “Or did you miss the part where he SUCKED THE DARKNESS OUT OF ME?! He’s a fucking vampire!”

“Vampires do not exist,” Ansem said dismissively.

“Quiet, everyone,” Xehanort, who had simply been observing, finally said. “As Xigbar noted, it is already known that Sora has this minor darkness form. However, it has not been known to absorb darkness in the past. I would be cautious in the future,” he said, though it sounded like he still didn’t believe it. “Now, back to other matters—”

“You’re still not listening to me!” Vanitas burst. Why didn’t they listen?! They all thought they were sooooo much better. He knew what he saw, he knew what had happened. “The kid’s eyes were GOLD. Bright gold. Like, my eye-color gold. The color of darkness. He IS dark! He’s a vampire, I swear! Like, if I had blood, I’m pretty sure I would be drained.”

“Vanitas,” Xehanort said sharply. “This matter is closed. You clearly misinterpreted what you saw; as Xigbar said, it’s a minor known phenomenon. Stop exaggerating it. You were defeated in battle; accept it, do not try to invent excuses. I taught you better than this.”

“But I’m serious!” Vanitas continued to argue.

“Vanitas,” Xehanort said coldly, narrowing his eyes. “If you continue to press this matter, I will be forced to put you into stasis until the final battle.”

Vanitas growled, but didn’t reply. Fine, if they didn’t want to believe him, it was their loss. He only cared about Ventus, anyway, not their stupid plot. If it failed because they didn’t listen to him, that wasn’t his problem. Plus, he had a splitting headache; he needed to find some heavy painkillers for that. Vanitas stood up shakily, then summoned another dark portal—barely—and staggered through.

**Author's Note:**

> Next entry will probably take about a month to show up, too (maybe sooner, but I don't want to stick my foot in my mouth by saying so).


End file.
